Satyabhama Majhi
Nationality: Indian
Based in: Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India
Occupation:
Visual Artist
Curator
Social Activist
Community Art Practitioner
Education:
M.F.A. in Traditional Art
Known for:
Urban life paintings
Community-based art
Public art
Natural pigment works
Niyamgiri-inspired art
Engagement with the Dongaria Kondh community
Organization:
Sasatwa Foundation
Position:
Secretary
Years Active:
2000–Present
Fields:
Painting
Sculpture
Installation Art
Photography
Mixed Media
Public Art
Community-based Art
Movement:
Contemporary Art
Notable Works:
People's Wall – Jan, Janani and Janmabhumi
Kalpanadham
Pago
Thought Loom
Awards:
Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi State Award (2012)
National Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi Scholarship (2009–2010)
Notable Projects:
People's Wall – Jan, Janani and Janmabhumi (2023, New Parliament House)
Kalpanadham
Pago
Thought Loom
Public murals for World Men's Hockey Cup and Asian Athletics events
Artistic Focus:
Contemporary Art
Community Art
Public Art
Traditional Art
Natural Pigments
Socially Engaged Art
Satyabhama Majhi is an Indian contemporary visual artist, curator, social activist and community art practitioner based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Her artistic practice includes painting, sculpture, installation art, photography, mixed media, public art, site-specific projects and community-based artistic initiatives.
Majhi's work explores themes including urban transformation, cultural memory, ecology, indigenous knowledge systems, community participation and relationships between people and their environments. She has also been involved in art education, public-art projects and community-based cultural initiatives.
Her artistic activities have included exhibitions, artist residencies, workshops, public-art interventions and collaborations with communities across Odisha and other parts of India. She has had a sustained engagement with the Dongria Kondh community of Odisha and has worked with natural pigments and materials associated with the Niyamgiri region.
Early life and background
Satyabhama Majhi grew up in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Her observations of everyday life in the city and its marketplaces later became an important influence on her artistic practice.
During her childhood, she observed the activities surrounding her father's shop in a local market. The marketplace exposed her to different forms of everyday social interaction, including buying and selling, seasonal celebrations, relationships between people and animals, neighbourhood activities and changes in the market environment.
These experiences contributed to her later interest in cultural and behavioural patterns, disappearing histories, memories associated with specific places and the effects of urbanisation on local and regional environments.
Bhubaneswar became an important subject of artistic enquiry in her work. Her observations of the city's changing landscape contributed to her exploration of questions relating to memory, urban development, modernization and cultural continuity.
Education
Majhi received a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in Traditional Art.
Her artistic practice subsequently expanded beyond conventional painting and gallery-based exhibition formats to include artistic experimentation, cultural documentation, community participation, public art and social engagement.
Artistic practice
Majhi works across several artistic mediums and forms, including:
- Painting
- Installation art
- Sculpture
- Photography
- Mixed media
- Public art
- Community-based art
- Site-specific projects
- Art education and creative learning
Although painting remains a significant part of her practice, her work also involves collaborative and participatory projects.
Her paintings frequently depict collective environments rather than focusing exclusively on individual subjects. Figures, animals, vegetation, vendors, architecture and elements of everyday life often appear together within larger compositions.
Several of her acrylic-on-canvas works from 2022 feature compositions involving people, vegetation, animals, vendors and fragments of urban life. Her mixed-media works on paper from 2021–22 include recurring forms and imagery involving triangular structures, people, animals, plants, domestic environments and culturally derived patterns.
Urban life, transformation and memory
The city is a recurring subject in Majhi's artistic practice.
Her work examines cities not only as physical environments consisting of roads, buildings and infrastructure, but also as spaces shaped by history, memory, social relationships and everyday human encounters.
Her experience of observing Bhubaneswar over time has informed her interest in the transformation of urban environments. Her work considers questions relating to changing neighbourhoods, disappearing familiar spaces, modernization and the relationship between development and local cultural identity.
Her paintings and visual projects have explored the relationship between collective memory and urban change.
Multidisciplinary approach
Majhi's artistic practice combines observation, narrative figuration, geometric forms, regional cultural references and ecological imagery.
Her works frequently include multiple human encounters within a single visual environment. Rather than presenting a single protagonist, her compositions often represent groups and communities through repeated figures and activities.
People walking, selling, waiting, celebrating, resting and interacting with their surroundings form recurring elements of her visual language.
Her work also combines contemporary artistic approaches with regional cultural references and materials.
Engagement with the Dongaria Kondh community
One of the significant aspects of Majhi's artistic practice has been her sustained engagement with the Dongria Kondh community of Odisha.
Her documented engagement with the community extends over more than a decade and has involved observation and interaction relating to cultural practices, livelihood patterns, indigenous visual traditions and relationships with the natural environment.
The Niyamgiri hills and the relationship between the Dongaria Kondh community and their environment have influenced several aspects of her artistic work.
Majhi's engagement with the community has included an exploration of the community's relationship with landscape, spirituality, livelihood and identity.
Her work has also examined visual traditions associated with the community and references connected with Niyam Raja, regarded within Dongaria Kondh cultural traditions as associated with the Niyamgiri landscape.
Niyamgiri and natural materials
Majhi has explored the use of natural materials originating from the Niyamgiri region.
Her interest in indigenous wall paintings, naturally sourced colours and regional visual traditions led her to experiment with materials collected from the landscape.
Materials associated with her natural pigment experiments include:
- Chalk stone
- Charcoal
- Turmeric
- Geru soil
- Brown stone
These materials were processed into pigments and used with binding materials for artistic work.
Through this process, landscape materials became part of the physical composition of the artwork.
Her use of natural pigments reflects an interest in the relationship between material, landscape, cultural memory and artistic practice.
The triangle motif
A recurring form in some of Majhi's works influenced by Dongaria Kondh visual culture is the triangle.
Within her artistic exploration, triangular forms have been associated with the silhouette of the Niyamgiri hills and ideas relating to landscape, stability, sacred geography and divinity.
The repeated use of triangles appears in mixed-media compositions alongside figures, animals, plants and scenes of everyday life.
The motif functions as both a geometric form and a reference to landscape and cultural symbolism.
Her work combines natural colours, culturally derived symbols and contemporary artistic composition.
Up and Down
Majhi's observations of life in the Niyamgiri hills contributed to a conceptual exploration described as "Up and Down".
The daily movement of people through hilly landscapes, including travel uphill and downhill for everyday activities and livelihoods, became a point of artistic reflection.
Majhi interpreted this movement as a broader metaphor relating to human life and the continuing movement of individuals and communities in pursuit of changing circumstances and opportunities.
The concept also reflects her interest in comparing different forms of social and geographical experience without treating indigenous communities solely as isolated or exotic subjects.
People's Wall – Jan, Janani and Janmabhumi
In 2023, Majhi served as a Co-Sutradhar and creative contributor to the participatory art project "People's Wall – Jan, Janani and Janmabhumi".
The project involved women artists and artisans from different regions of India and was created for the New Parliament House through the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.
The initiative brought together regional aesthetics, traditional visual languages and the artistic knowledge of women practitioners.
The project represented a collaborative approach to public and national cultural spaces and involved contributions from artists and artisans from different regions of India.
For Majhi, the project represented a convergence of her interests in artistic practice, community participation, cultural traditions and collaborative creativity.
Public art
Public space forms an important part of Majhi's artistic practice.
She has participated in large-scale murals, public-art interventions and community projects in Odisha.
Her work has contributed to public-art activities in urban locations including areas of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
Projects and locations associated with her public-art activities include:
- Ring Road, Cuttack
- Dagabara Sahi area, Cuttack
- Public-art initiatives in Bhubaneswar
- Public murals connected with major sporting and cultural events
- Pago
- Thought Loom
Her documented public-art activities have included murals associated with the Men's FIH Hockey World Cup and Asian athletics events.
Her approach to public art considers walls and neighbourhood spaces as potential sites for collective visual and cultural expression.
Art education and creative learning
Art education has been another major component of Majhi's work.
For approximately 15 years, she has worked with children, schools and educational communities through creative learning and art-based initiatives.
Her approach to children's art education emphasises observation, memory and personal experience rather than the imitation of predetermined images.
Through creative learning activities, children are encouraged to use everyday experiences as starting points for artistic expression.
Examples of subjects explored through such methods include:
- Household activities
- Trees and natural environments
- Village journeys
- Festivals
- Animals
- Personal memories
- Everyday life
Majhi has been associated with programs including Kalpanadham and has participated in projects involving organisations such as Gram Vikas and Tata Trust.
Her documented work includes workshops with residential schools, children's festivals and educational initiatives across Odisha.
She has also been involved in earlier workshops with children with disabilities and children from underserved communities.
Community engagement
Community participation is a significant element of Majhi's artistic practice.
Her work has involved interaction with villages, schools, tribal communities, urban neighbourhoods and public spaces.
Her approach to community-based art emphasises observation, listening and engagement with existing cultural practices.
Rather than treating communities solely as subjects of artistic representation, her projects have involved interaction and participation.
Her engagement with indigenous communities has also contributed to her exploration of ecology, memory, cultural traditions and local knowledge systems.
Sasatwa Foundation
Majhi serves as the Secretary of the Sasatwa Foundation.
Through the foundation and related initiatives, her artistic activities intersect with community and social engagement.
Her work through community-oriented projects includes interaction with educational institutions, rural communities, tribal communities and urban environments.
Exhibitions, residencies and artistic engagements
Majhi's professional career includes exhibitions, artist camps, workshops, residencies, public-art projects and community-based artistic initiatives.
Her documented artistic engagements include associations with institutions and platforms such as:
- Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
- Nature Morte, Gurgaon
- Gallery platforms in New Delhi, including Nvya
- Lalit Kala Akademi
- Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi
- Bhubaneswar Art Trail
- Vancouver Biennale-linked projects
- Gram Art Project
Her professional record includes a solo exhibition at Bharat Bhavan and participation in group exhibitions, artist camps, residencies and public-art initiatives.
She has also participated in projects involving artists working directly with rural communities and villages.
These engagements include:
- Gram International Residency
- Gram Art Residency
- Vancouver Biennale-related I HAVE A DREAM project
- Collaborative projects involving tribal women and rural communities
- National and regional artist camps
These experiences contributed to the development of a practice that combines studio work, public engagement, landscape and community participation.
Lalit Kala Akademi recognition
Among the recognitions associated with Majhi's artistic career is the Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi State Award, recorded as having been received in 2012.
She also received a National Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi Scholarship for 2009–2010.
Career and continuing practice
Majhi's documented artistic activity extends from the early 2000s onward.
Her professional record includes exhibitions, workshops, artist camps, public-art interventions, educational initiatives and community-based projects spanning more than two decades.
Throughout her career, recurring themes in her work have included:
- Relationships between people and places
- Landscape and cultural identity
- Urban development and changing environments
- Traditional knowledge and contemporary life
- Ecology and human communities
- Memory and modernization
- Community participation
- Cultural continuity
Art, ecology and indigenous knowledge
Ecology is an important aspect of Majhi's artistic engagement with indigenous communities.
Her work considers relationships between culture and landscape, including connections involving food, agriculture, ritual, colour, architecture, seasonal movement and spiritual traditions.
Her artistic engagement has explored relationships between:
- People and nature
- Tradition and development
- Memory and modernization
- Local identity and global change
Rather than presenting these relationships as fixed categories, her work examines the interaction between environmental, cultural and social change.
The artist as observer and listener
A recurring aspect of Majhi's practice is the importance of observation and engagement before transforming experiences into artistic work.
Her long-term engagement with communities has informed her approach to cultural motifs, materials and visual traditions.
Her work with indigenous communities has focused on understanding the cultural and environmental contexts from which visual forms emerge.
Elements such as triangles, mountains, wall paintings, natural pigments and patterns are therefore considered within broader cultural and geographical contexts.
Visual language
Majhi's visual language combines several recurring elements:
Narrative figuration
Her work depicts everyday human activities, relationships and collective experiences.
Repetition
Multiple figures, objects and motifs are used to create collective visual narratives.
Geometry
Triangular and geometric forms appear in several works, particularly those influenced by landscape and indigenous visual traditions.
Natural imagery
Plants, hills, animals and ecological forms appear throughout her work.
Regional memory
Her work draws upon environments, cultural traditions and visual experiences associated with Odisha.
Observation of modernity
Urban expansion, changing lifestyles and social transformation form recurring areas of observation.
Community experience
Ordinary people and collective environments frequently occupy central positions in her visual compositions.
Selected career highlights
2023 – People's Wall, New Parliament House
Majhi served as Co-Sutradhar and creative contributor to People's Wall – Jan, Janani and Janmabhumi, a participatory initiative involving women artists and artisans from different parts of India and realised for the New Parliament House through Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi.
Dongaria Kondh engagement
Her artistic practice includes more than a decade of engagement with the Dongaria Kondh community, involving exploration of cultural practices, livelihood, daily movement, indigenous visual traditions and relationships with nature.
Art and child education
Majhi has approximately 15 years of experience engaging with children and schools through art-based creative learning and educational initiatives, including work associated with Gram Vikas and Tata Trust.
Public art
She has participated in murals and public-art initiatives across Odisha, including projects associated with sporting, cultural and urban events.
Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi State Award
Recipient of the Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi State Award, recorded as 2012.
National scholarship
Recipient of the National Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi Scholarship for 2009–2010.
Major exhibitions and platforms
Her artistic career includes engagements with Bharat Bhavan, Nature Morte, Lalit Kala Akademi, Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi, Bhubaneswar Art Trail, Gram Art Project and Vancouver Biennale-linked projects.
Artistic philosophy
Majhi's artistic practice is informed by several recurring ideas.
Memory
Her work examines the histories and memories associated with places and the changes that occur when environments are transformed.
Community
Community participation and collective experiences form important elements of her artistic and public projects.
Nature
Her work explores relationships between human culture and the natural environment.
Continuity
Her practice examines ways in which traditional knowledge and cultural forms can participate in contemporary artistic contexts.
These themes allow her work to move between urban and rural environments, traditional and contemporary practices, individual observation and collective experience.
Beyond galleries
Majhi's career includes work in galleries and institutional spaces as well as schools, villages, public spaces and community environments.
Her practice includes:
- Gallery exhibitions
- Public murals
- Community projects
- Children's creative learning
- Indigenous cultural engagement
- Artist residencies
- National participatory art projects
Her artistic work therefore operates across institutional, public, educational and community contexts.
Legacy and continuing work
Majhi's career represents an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary artistic practice.
Her work connects painting, curatorial activity, public art, community engagement, education and cultural exploration.
From her observations of changing urban life in Bhubaneswar to her engagement with the Niyamgiri landscape and the Dongaria Kondh community, her practice has explored relationships between art, society, landscape and cultural memory.
Her work with children, communities, artists and artisans has formed an important part of her continuing artistic activities.
Awards and honours
- Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi State Award (2012)
- National Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi Scholarship (2009–2010)
Selected institutions and organisations associated with her work
- Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal
- Nature Morte, Gurgaon
- Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi
- Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi
- Gram Vikas
- Tata Trust
- Sasatwa Foundation
- Bhubaneswar Art Trail
- Gram Art Project
- Vancouver Biennale-linked projects